"Why Peer Review?"
Peer reviewing is an important element of college writing. Despite the art of reviewing being a fundamental process in the growth of writing skills, the fact remains that not all students embrace this act. There are a number of reasons why people support peer reviewing. First of all, reviewing the work of other authors allows one to improve the level of revision of one’s own work. This means that the art of revising and editing is enhanced by the participation in peer-reviewed writing (Marder and Smith 45). Irrespective of the benefits that are associated with the art of peer reviewing, there are a couple of reasons that causes people to oppose peer reviewing. First of all, some people are not contented with the feedback that they get from peer-reviewing. Some of the feedback given by peer-reviewers is scanty such that it is unhelpful to the author. This creates a situation whereby students would better present their work to writing instructors other than their peers. In addition, some author’s do not like to release their work until they have come up with a solid final draft.
My feeling about the text is that it captures the real picture that exists in the writing environment of most students. One of the key idea that resonates with me is the fact that peer reviewing has both advantages and disadvantages. They are reason to embrace this art, but at the same time it poses some challenges to the writing process if it remains unchecked. This would mean that feedback given by some reviewers should be elaborated and re-checked to confirm that it is not the feedback is substantive enough to help a given author improve his or her work. I totally agree with the article on the idea that the process of peer-reviewing should be done objectively. In so doing, the more a peer reviewer learns to criticize other people’s work, the more they develop better editing and revising strategies of their own work.
Works Cited
Marder, Robert, and Mark A. Smith. Effective peer review: a practical guide to contemporary design. 2nd ed. Marblehead, MA: HCPro, 2007. Print.
